Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon
Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon (also known as Destroy All Humans! 3) is the third Destroy All Humans! game to be released, and is the fourth game in the Destroy All Humans! trilogy, released December 1, 2008 in North America for the Xbox 360. - THQ CEO Brian Farrell mentions work on the Destroy All Humans franchise for the 2008 fiscal year. The game was developed by THQ's Sandblast Games studio for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles. Path of the Furon expands on the open world format of the previous Destroy All Humans! games, with five new open worlds on the ground and in the air to obliterate with new weapons and new alien powers. As of November 26, 2008, the North American PS3 version was canceled citing "development issues". The game will however still be released in Europe and Australia/New Zealand for the PS3 on February 13, 2009, alongside the Xbox 360 release. Gameplay Missions, side quests, and achievements Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon has over 30 story missions, 20 side quests, and multiplayer modes. As with previous games, most story missions can be played in non-linear order. Creative director Jon Knoles stated that the side quests would be related to the story, would also be creative, and "epic". Knoles added that the achievements are tied to statistic tracking in the game, and they are unique to the weapons and abilities found, allowing the player to experiment with different possibilities. For example, IGN noted that when the player takes the "Sunny" off of the Sunnywood sign they get a cutscene and one of the more creative achievements. There are also challenges and mini-games that the player can return to repeatedly to better their score and collect more rewards. There are five new open-world locations based on Las Vegas ("Las Paradiso"), Hollywood ("Sunnywood"), Hong Kong ("Shen Long"), Paris("Belleville"), and the Fourth Ring of Furon. Multiplayer This game features split screen offline multiplayer. Most challenges are player versus player, although one is co-op. The maps are scaled down versions of their single player counterparts. The games are Ion Soccer, where players use their ion detonators to shoot a ball into each other's goals, Brain-O-Matic, where players PK humans into a machine that will extract their brains for processing, and Abductorama, basically a competitive game of "keep away", in which the goal of the game is to abduct the ball, and keep it out of the reach of the other player until the player color fills up the bar, or get the bar filled up more than the other player and keep it like that until time runs out. There are no co-op single player missions, nor can you play through the story with co-op. Plot Crypto 138, having resigned his presidency and Natalya having died because of human clones not living long, has crashed his old saucer into a casino's electronic ticker display while drunk, and was killed in the crash. After the crash, Pox has cloned Crypto 139, and they have taken over and re-opened the casino, called the "Space Dust," (A parody of Stardust Resort & Casino) which they use to maintain a steady flow of cash and human DNA. They discover that the local mob family sent a spy to gather information on them. Crypto infiltrates the mob's casino and destroys the interior, driving out the customers, causing the mob to go to war with him. He defeats the mob, destroying their profits and taking control of Las Paradiso. Soon he begins hearing a voice instructing him in the paths of enlightenment and how to advance in those paths. As Crypto begins to discover the potential of his powers, strange creatures suddenly appear attack. Pox identifies them as Nexosporidium warriors, whom are supposedly extinct. Crypto manages to defeat them. In an act of desperation, Pox commands Crypto to destroy all of Paradiso, including the Space Dust, to erase any evidence of their being there. Crypto reluctantly does so, and they flee to Sunnywood. In Sunnywood, the duo assume Curt Calvin, leader of the Lunarian Church of Alientology, to be another DNA harvesting furon on Earth. To draw Calvin out, Crypto and Pox seek the help of a local reporter. Crypto rescues her after she is kidnapped by the Lunarians, and she tells him of an inside man in the Lunarian cult, known as Deep Naval. Crypto works out an agreement with Deep Naval to meet Calvin, but Deep Naval fails to fulfill his part of the bargain. Pox and Crypto then stage a "big alien arrival" at the Sunnywood Bowl to attract Calvin. Crypto confronts the cult leader and shoots him, but instead of seeing a dead furon, a nexo walker appears. After defeating the walker, Crypto is shot in the neck with a dart and faints. Crypto awakens three days later in a monastery ran by a furon martial arts expert known as The Master. After a confrontation, Crypto agrees to become The Master's new disciple. He reveals to Crypto that one hundred years ago imperial traitors marked Emperor Meningitis for death. He managed to stop the assassination, but was in turn marked for death. Fleeing to Earth, he crash-landed off the coast of China. He sought revenge, but soon realized eastern philosophies could help him improve his mental abilities, and so immersed himself in the ways of their culture, and in the process lost his desire for revenge. He built an academy, gaining followers to pass his knowledge down to. He took an apprentice named Saxon, who became power hungry, forming a triad to oppose The Master. The Master instructs Crypto to hold a tournament to draw Saxon out, however Crypto arrives back at the monastery where he witnesses Saxon kill the Master. Enraged, Crypto attacks and defeats Saxon, interrogating at gunpoint when nexos show up. Saxon dies in the confusion, and Crypto escapes destroying the barge. Pox states that the nexos could only have been cloned on Earth, and that only one organization could accomplish such. Pox and Crypto then set off for Bellevile, France, home of Francodyne. In Belleville, Pox and Crypto discover that Francodyne's CEO is Henri Crousteau. Crypto infiltrates Crousteau's mansion to confront him, but Crousteau escapes after stabbing him with a spiny fish. Pox and Crypto escape the mansion and learn Crousteau intends to create a virus to destroy the furon DNA within the human genome. Crypto sets out to destroy his nexo manufacturing operation. He causes a riot between the workers and destroys the nexo laboratory. However, Crousteau still manages to create the virus and sends four walkers to distribute it into the river. Crypto destroys the walkers and faces Crousteau in a final battle at the Belleville tower. Upon defeating Crousteau, Crypto learns that he only wanted to destroy his own race to stop the planet from being polluted, that he was feeding the nexos synthetic DNA, and that he wasn't responsible for the attack on the Space Dust. The nexos that did attack were rouge ones responding to a signal from Furon. Crypto then realizes that the one truly responsible for his troubles was Emperor Meningitis himself. He and Pox set off for the Fourth Ring of Furon to confront the emperor. Upon arriving, Crypto immediately attacks the palace in a blind rage. Outraged, the emperor kicks them out of the city and puts up a large shield. Pox and Crypto manage to deactivate it and re-enter the city. Pox reveals that since he once worked for the emperor his biometrics were still in the system, and would allow them to open the palace door. After doing favors for the molder and the Librarian, Crypto and Pox download Pox's clone data from the imperial repository, and proceed to clone Pox a new body, becoming Orthopox 14. However the molder accidentally uses the wrong body mold, and Pox comes out of the machine as a monkey. Pox informs Crypto they'll need a distraction, and to start a human riot in the artificial human habitat. As the riot ensues, Crypto confronts Meningitis, defeating him, but the emperor disintegrates from old age before he can be interrogated. The Master then reappears from the Jade Talisman Crypto inherited from him, revealing that he was the conspirator who set everything in motion. It was he all along who had been controlling the nexos, introducing the synthetic DNA, and staging his own death. The Jade Talisman was really a cloning device used so that after Meningitis was defeated he could be smuggled in and become the new emperor. Crypto, shocked by what he has heard, becomes infuriated, and makes a motion to Pox. Pox then uses his strength to slam The Master against a wall, killing him. Crypto picks up a canister of synthetic DNA and tries it, but vomits at the horrible taste. Pox tells Crypto that as long as he cannot stomach the synthetic DNA their mission wasn't a sham, and there would always be a reason to Destroy All Humans! Crypto realizes that Pox is right, and decides to return to Earth. Pox then tells Crypto he isn't returning with him, and takes the throne. As Crypto leaves he states that he will see Pox in ten years. As he walks out of the palace, the other furons begin running in, to greet their new emperor. Characters In addition to the return of Cryptosporidium, Orthopox and the furon god Arkvoodle, the game features a cast of new characters that Crypto meets along his journey. * The Master - an old and wise furon martial arts expert, who has strong mental powers and is well trained in Psychokinesis. He was once a furon warrior who was friends with Emperor Meningitis, who crash landed on Earth while on the run from conspiring traitors back home. He longed for revenge, but while on Earth he immersed himself in Eastern philosophies and developed new Psychokinetic abilities, losing his desire for revenge. The Master is revealed to be the actual conspirator and main antagonist. * Nexosporidium warriors (also known as Nexos) - a mysterious race of supposedly extinct cyborgs from the furon home world. * Emperor Meningitis - the emperor of the Furon Empire. * Curt Calvin - the leader of the Lunarian Church of Alientology. He is thought to be another DNA harvesting furon in disguise, but is revealed to be a regular human. He is killed by a Nexo Walker. * Henri Crousteau (a parody of Henri Rousseau) - a French oceanographer and environmentalist. He discovered The Master's crashed saucer in 1971, and used the technology and synthetic DNA to manufacture his own army of Nexos. * Saxon (likely inspired by John Saxon from Enter the Dragon) - a previous student of The Master who has turned from his discipleship. He wears a yellow jumpsuit made of silk and rides a Nexo Dragon. * Rolo (likely a parody of Bolo Yeung (Actor/Martial Artist) from Enter the Dragon) - Saxon's right-hand man who is self-obsessed with his pectoral muscles. He is responsible for stealing The Master's Jade Talisman, and for gathering martial arts experts for a tournament, at Crypto's request. After Saxon's death, he rises up to become the leader of the White Dragons. Rolo may look tough, but he's really just a pitiful wimp. * Sammy and Faire (parodies of Sonny & Cher) - two singers Crypto meets in Las Paradiso. * The Molinari Brothers - Mikey is the head of the mob family that Crypto is at war with. He is in charge of the Nero's Palazzo casino, and is the one who declares war on the Space Dust. His brother Vinnie carries a bat with him, smokes cigars and he is overweight. * Endometriosis - the furon responsible for making clone body molds on the Fourth Ring of Furon, and the furon who made a major breakthrough in clone technology. Endometriosis has a Italian accent, and wears a beret. * Helicobacter - Endometriosis' arch rival and the furon in charge of the Cloning Industrial Island. * The Librarian - an old friend of Pox's, this furon is the Proprietor of the Humania Amusement Park, and also the furon in charge of storing highly classified genetic clone data. Voices and dialogue Veteran voice actors J. Grant Albrecht and Richard Horvitz reprise their roles as Cryptosporidium and Orthopox respectively, and the musical score is performed by veteran composer Garry Schyman. According to the game's creative director, Jon Knoles, there are approximately 15,000 lines of spoken dialogue in the game. There is more back and forth banter between Crypto and Pox, interactive conversations, and more human minds to read. There are between 30 and 50 thoughts for each human in the game and about 2000 in total. Knoles also stated that "Crypto is as cranky, crass, irreverent, horny and homicidal as ever, maybe more than ever.", indicating that Crypto's personality is unchanged. The game features interactive dialogue trees, similar to those found in RPGs, such as Mass Effect. However, the dialogue trees usually only contain witty banter, and often don't affect the plot. Changes from previous installments Furon technology and weaponry Weapons such as the Ion Detonator will no longer harm Crypto. Almost all of the previous weapons have been redesigned. The Ion Detonator can now stick to both people and objects, and has a larger blast radius than in previous games. The Anal Probe can now lock onto more than one human. The jet pack has a longer-lasting battery, and controls differently. The Dislocator (introduced in Destroy all Humans! 2) also returns, firing pink gravity defying energy disks that fling people and objects in many different random directions. The player may now engage in "car surfing" via this weapon, and the disks are now pink, instead of purple as they were in Destroy All Humans! 2. Some of the new weaponry includes the Tornadotron, the Black Hole Gun, and the Venus Human Trap. Another new weapon is the Superballer, which fires out a supercharged ball that hones in on targets sending them bouncing. With each bounce, the victim takes damage, and with each impact a shock wave is created that affects anything nearby. In a reference to one of the ubiquitous symbols of the 1970s (rainbows) the vapor trail creates a spectral refraction effect akin to a rainbow. The saucer has been redesigned, as Crypto crashed the original saucer into the Space Dust casino while drunk. His saucer can now fly horizontally and vertically and aim in all directions. Crypto can use the saucer's weapons to scar buildings and terrain. These scars remain until a new mission is started, the player travels to a different location, or in the case of a building, until its destroyed. The Quantum Deconstructor can now be charged. The saucer can abduct multiple humans, which are processed instantly. When abducted, humans slightly recharge the saucer's shields and also increase DNA. Controls and gameplay Due to streamlined controls, Crypto can shoot humans, use the jet pack, and activate Psychokinesis simultaneously. Crypto can now engage in aerial battles. There are now flying enemies, such as helicopters and Nexo saucers that can attack Crypto in his saucer. The player can travel to different locations "without ever leaving the game world" Buildings collapse and scar differently when attacked with different weapons. The game features a modified alert scheme with police, SWAT, military awareness, and nexo alert. Electricity surges through power lines when damage is caused to them. The player can now use Mental Lock as an accurate targeting system for circle strafing with a weapon. The player can exit and enter certain buildings freely during some missions, such as the Space Dust. The Master's monastery can be accessed at any time. There is also no fall damage in the game. Psychokinesis Psychokinesis is now mapped to its own trigger for easy access. Using it generates a large blue-purple glow around Crypto's hand. The Temporal Fist ability allows Crypto to stop time, manipulate objects, set up a powerful push, and then resume time. Objects can be given a directional impulse that causes the object to fly with greater force than a normal psychokinetic push once time has been resumed. PK magnet allows Crypto to magnetize any object in PK, causing several people or other objects to stick and form a ball of humans and debris. Crypto can now use Cortex Scan to prolong the life of his body-snatched victim, similar to the ability of Cortex Scanning humans to refill concentration and keep the holobob disguise active in the first game. Reception |GSpot=4.0/10 |IGN=3.0/10 |rev1 = Team Xbox |rev1Score = 4.2/10 |rev2 = ''GameZone |rev2Score = 5/10 |rev3 = ''X-play |rev3Score = |GR=41% (based on 10 media outlets) |MC=36% (based on 12 reviews) }} ''Path of the Furon was generally poorly received by critics. Several reviewers cited poor graphics. GameZone praised the new weaponry stating "The new arsenal and saucer are a nice touch but the best upgrade comes from a Furon Master that seems to have been watching one too many episodes of Kung-Fu.". TeamXbox stated that the game lacked polish, saying "No, the basic gameplay isn’t all that bad—though having a series of two-player, local-only minigames under a “Multiplayer” banner seems like a stretch—but the presentation is horrid.". GameDaily also cited poor polish and design: "Crypto the alien's most recent attempt to overthrow mankind is thwarted by uninspired game design." Reviews of the in-game soundtrack were generally better. GameZone "''The score is still has that sci-fi B-movie feel with a heavy dose of ‘70s-styled funk and disco tossed in for good measure." GameSpot criticized the "slow, tedious pacing" and said that some of the characters had racist portrayal. IGN said that "What was fun three years ago has now grown stale, especially in an environment so unappealing. Furon just isn’t much fun to play, especially when compared to previous games in the series.". X-Play's Morgan Webb described the game as "half-baked" and "unfinished". However, Morgan also states that the story is extremely in-depth and very good, and much of the weaponry and gameplay can still be satisfying. The game's review averages were also poor, with Game Rankings reporting a 43%. and Metacritic reporting only a 36% score. Category:Games